Outer Olympus

Outer Olympus: Chapter 24

As far as these things went, the party in its early stages was going as well as it could have. Malcolm was, as he did at these things, making small talk with the various local business leaders who funneled money into his pockets about their upcoming initiatives and the various support they'd be expecting from him. This type of consorting wasn't why he had called this party, but it was always good to get some in. The mood was good, the music strong, the drinks stronger, all that was left was the man of the hour. Malcolm had sighted Lord Jason Hunter the minute he had stepped into the room, but didn't rush to greet him. Meetings like this demanded a type of grace and detachment. To look desperate for Lord Hunter's support was to look weak, which would make him not worth the investment he was asking for. The man needed to think Malcolm wanted his support, but didn't need it. Right now, Lord Hunter was talking to Commodore Lentwitz, who captained the Hadrian's Architect, a Gawain-II class heavy frigate which defended the L3 Lagrange sea (an astrological location which no longer contained anything of note but Maintenance Six). Hunter was bragging about the Sacred Sharpshooter, his new luxury cruiser, and how it was the first to be mounted with one of the Ministry of the Future's new beam cannons. For his part, the Commodore was pretending the idea of mounting a fifty million credit gun designed to engage capital ships onto a luxury vessel wasn't absurd, letting the man boast and think he was impressing the audience. Malcolm made note to compliment the ship if the opportunity arose; it was good to know what someone was proud of. Pride was a delightful vulnerability in someone you wanted to get on the good side of, and Malcolm had made a habit of exploiting it.

"Magistrate Paradigm, if it isn't my gracious host!" Hunter said when he finally approached. The two shook hands.

"So good to finally meet you in person, Lord Hunter," Malcolm greeted, "we've been messaging each other for so long, but finally the grim spectre of interstellar distance has been defeated, and we can talk face to face." In truth, neither man had made real effort to communicate with the other; all their messages had moved between overworked secretaries, neither's words ever touching the other directly until this moment. "I hear it's quite the ship that made the journey, even."

"Yes, you must let me give you a tour one of these days, when neither of us is wholly occupied by business. As if that ever happens," Hunter laughed, taking a sip of champagne. "Speaking of which, you really didn't have to throw this whole soiree on my behalf." This was a polite lie, this kind of man loved being treated like this.

"Oh, hush. You just picked a good time to show up. We've been planning this for months," Malcolm lied back, knowing Hunter would also recognize this as being polite.

"Of course, of course. You Quilst-folk sure know how to impress." Malcolm smiled at the compliment. "It's hard out here in the expansion zone, without the real culture of the Core around."

"All the more reason men like us need to keep things in line," Malcolm replied, "without our guidance, this place would fall into ruin, as we've so tragically seen in the last decade." Hunter nodded.

"Something that might be easier if a certain someone was a Baron?" Hunter's words brought out a shrug from Malcolm. It would be crude to simply say yes. "We'll talk details in meetings in the coming weeks, but there are some... changes, let's say, that we'd have to your arrangement?"

"Oh?" was all Malcolm said. He wasn't foolish enough to assume Hunter would come in giving significant aid without asking for anything in return. Time to see what the complication would be.

"The thing is, Maintenance Six is just a bit small for a Barony. No, I can see you're about to debate me, wait till I'm finished, you'll like it." Malcolm swallowed. It wasn't a good start. "As you've explained tirelessly, Eminence Industrial moves millions of tonnes of material through Maintenance Six every year. Rockwater's mineral wealth is so important to the economy of the Euphrates Expansion Zone." Hunter was so good at using the official term for the region. "And your station gets half the traffic, ever since The Admiral Who Secures Olympus blew up all the other L3 colonies. This is, in a word, inefficient."